A neon sign of Shanghai Daily’s new news platform SHINE helps to light up Huangpu River yesterday — the day Shanghai Daily officially launched SHINE, signifying its transformation from a traditional newspaper-oriented operation into a digital media. SHINE includes a news website and a mobile app. The platform provides breaking news, in-depth stories and insightful analysis. The paper will still be published, and readers will find links in Shanghai Daily inviting them to learn more details of a story by checking out related pictures and videos. China is not the top source of clicks for www.shine.cn. The US has the most users.

Shanghai Daily officially launched its new news platform SHINE yesterday — signifying its transformation from a traditional newspaper-oriented operation into a digital media.

SHINE includes a news website and a mobile app.

The website features a large-screen headline picture and an infinite scroll design that allows users to read more news stories with fewer clicks.

Mobile app users can easily swipe to switch between categories and share stories via different social media platforms such as WeChat and Weibo.

The new platform provides breaking news, in-depth stories and insightful analysis about Shanghai and China.

The Shanghai Daily newspaper will still be published, and readers will find links in the paper inviting them to learn more details of a story by checking out related pictures and videos.

In the future, readers will be able to log in to comment on articles on SHINE and customize their own reading list by following columns, authors and special features that they like.

The mobile app can be downloaded from Apple’s App Store as well as major Android app stores.

Meanwhile, SHINE is available on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Sina Weibo and WeChat.

The traffic to shine.cn has been growing about 15 percent day by day, and the page views and the length of time spent on the new website per visitor have been three to four times over
shanghaidaily.com.

Interestingly, China is not the top source of clicks for shine.cn. The United States now has the most users, accounting for 45 percent of the website’s readership.

Luz Helena Echeverry, consul general of the Republic of Colombia in Shanghai, said she looks forward to more multi-media content from SHINE news outlets.

“Shanghai Daily is a very good newspaper to inform people of news in Shanghai, and I believe SHINE will be wonderful because we will now have more videos and stories about history of the city, and everything will be online,” she said.

Therese Healy, consul general of Ireland in Shanghai, called the launch of SHINE the start of a very new addition to the media world in the city and said it is much needed.

“I like the fact that it will be quite interactive and looking at innovative ways of showing Shanghai to readers in Shanghai and beyond,” she said.

Radek Cais, general manager of Wanda Reign on the Bund and managing director for east China at Wanda Hotels and Resorts, said SHINE is a “beautiful idea.”

“Shanghai Daily has been in print form for so long (since 1999) and everybody feels comfortable, but now you’re taking an adventure into the e-landscape. It’s important, and you’re ahead of the curve,” he said.

Paul Meredith, an American singer and songwriter who has been living in Shanghai for 14 years, said it’s exciting that SHINE has launched because readers can now share news from Shanghai with the whole world.

“It’s nice to have a Chinese institution like Shanghai Daily which is very interesting and considered very important to communicate with all cultures all over the world,” he said.

“It’s good for China and for everybody.”

Owais Succari, associate professor of DePaul University, who has been living in the city for decades and is a long-time reader of Shanghai Daily, thinks SHINE will be a leap forward because now he will be able to read, listen to or watch items.

He said he recommends Shanghai Daily to his business students who come from all over the world.

Shanghai Daily itself now has readers from all over the world, having established itself as a leading English newspaper in China over the past 18 years.